A network appliance is a processing system that may be connected to a network to provide service to other devices over the network. A file server, or filer, is an example of a network appliance. A filer is a form of storage server which provides file storage and file access to remote clients that request access to the data storage. Another type of storage server, which may be implemented as an appliance, is one which provides clients with block-level access to stored data, rather than file-level access. Such a server can be used in a storage area network (SAN), for example, to provide an interface between clients and mass storage devices.
A multi-appliance management application (MMA) can be used to maintain a storage network. An MMA is a type of storage server management application (SSMA) that can be used to monitor data storage over a network on several different processing systems. For example, an MMA can be used to monitor the storage on several filers. A system administrator can maintain the filers using the MMA, ensuring that the filers continue to have adequate free space, that certain users are not monopolizing storage on a filer, etc. An example of such an MMA is the DataFabric® Manager (DFM) products made by Network Appliance, Inc. in Sunnyvale, Calif. The MMA may provide a user interface (UI) such as a Command Line Interface (CLI) or a Graphical User Interface (GUI) that allows the administrator to more easily observe the condition of the filer. The MMA may comprise an application on another processing system, or it may be a hardware device on the storage network.
A system administrator can use the MMA to manage one or more appliances on a storage network. The UI of the MMA allows the administrator to not only monitor the status of appliances connected to the network, but also to change settings on the appliances. For example, the MMA can be used to add or delete authorized users on a specific filer. The MMA may also be used to determine the type and amount of storage being used on a filer. For example, the MMA may monitor the amount of storage dedicated to audio or video files, and report to the administrator if the amount of storage dedicated to these files exceeds a predetermined threshold. The MMA has an overall view of the appliances, and can also control the function and administration of the appliances.
An MMA may be an application deployed on a server station that is connected to one or more appliances either directly or through a network. The MMA includes a core set of functionality. The MMA may be upgraded by using software patches that modify the core functionality. These modifications may tend to reduce the reliability of the MMA, since the patches modify the basic functionality of the MMA. Further, the patches may be difficult to deploy and difficult to write. What is needed, therefore, is an improved way to add functionality to an MMA.